For the longest time I barely remembered to charge my iPhone at night. The iLuv App Station changed that by being a simple no-hassle speaker/charger dock that I can drop my phone into before dozing off to some mellow tune.

The Price

The iLuv App Station will set you back $90. For that price you get the dock and the corresponding AC adapter. You'll of course have to purchase the optional six AA batteries separately.

The Dock

The dock is simply designed without any frills. You've got an on/off switch, a volume button, a snooze button—which works with the iLuv App Clock—and a 3.5mm audio input jack. The dock can be rotated to hold your iPhone in either a vertical or horizontal orientation. That's it, but then again you don't really need anything beyond that to charge your phone and listen to some music at a louder volume.

The App

In theory, you're supposed to use the iLuv App Clock iPhone app with the App Station, but I've found that I'm happier just relying on my iPhone's built-in Alarm, Weather, and iPod apps. This is mainly because the iLuv app isn't iOS 4 compatible and can't run in the background. This means that if I accidentally close it to read an SMS, I'll find myself waking up to realize that I overslept.

Nonetheless, it's a neat app—it lets you set alarms, shows the local weather, or plays music from your playlists—and seems like it could be great with a little update.

The Verdict

I've been using the App Station for a while without really thinking about it—not that I can think much while sleepily sliding my iPhone into the dock for a charge anyway—and that's a good thing. It's a great bedroom iPhone speaker/charger dock that does what it's designed for without requiring much thought or fiddling. My only qualm with it is its $90 price tag. If that were dropped to about $40-$50, then I'd comfortably recommend the gadget.

Clean, simple design that suits most nightstands.

You can use the dock vertically or horizontally.

The dock is a bit pricey at $90.

The app matching the dock is not iOS 4 compatible yet, meaning that it can't be run in the background.